The
student, Richard O’Dwyer, a 24-year-old
college student from Great Britain, was facing possible extradition on criminal
charges of copyright infringement. The possible punishment: 10 years in
a U.S. federal penitentiary.

In 2008, O’Dwyer first set up a website, TVShack.net, which
allowed users to search for and link to other sites, including ones that the
federal authorities argue showed pirated movies and television shows.

The US government shut down TVShack.net in summer
2010. But Mr. O’Dwyer was apparently
unbowed. TVShack.net had been growing in popularity, and it
made about $230,000 from advertising over the course of two years, federal
prosecutors claim.

“America? They have nothing to do with me,” Mr. O’Dwyer had
declared, according to his mother. He then subsequently reopened his site
as TVShack.cc, which he reckoned was beyond the reach of the United
States. He was wrong.

A few months later came a knock on the door from the British
police. A judge ruled that Mr. O’Dwyer would not be prosecuted in Britain.
Instead, the US Department of Justice would seek to extradite him.

Prosecutors also claimed that O'Dwyer was well aware that the
material was copyrighted. They cited an announcement on TVShack that urged
users to be patient with download times because they were “saving quite a lot
of money (especially when putting several visits to the theater or
seasons together).”

Subsequently, the BBC has reported the student has struck a
deal to avoid extradition. A High Court judge was informed that Mr O'Dwyer
was expected to travel to the U.S. in the next 14 days to complete a plea agreement, pay an undisclosed sum in compensation and give undertakings not to
infringe any copyright laws again. If he does, he may face immediate extradition.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Yesterday, GoDaddy, one of the Internet's largest webhosts and registrars, was believed to have been attacked by an anonymous cyber-terrorist purportedly because of the Internet company's initial support for the Stop Online Piracy Act ("SOPA").Our readers will recall that SOPA became a hot topic earlier this year, but the controversial anti-piracy legislation was effectively tabled due to vocal online protests.

It would appear from more recent reports that GoDaddy's problems may have been of the more internal variety, and not the work of pro-piracy hackers.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

On
August 21, the FBI announced that it had seized Applanet.net, SnappzMarket.net,
and AppBucket.net with the cooperation of domestic and foreign governments, for
offering illegally pirated android applications in violation of copyright laws.

Between
the three sites, they hosted more than 50,000 cracked applications and games,
and had collectively over 120,000 followers
on Facebook and Twitter.

Prior
to the execution of warrants and the seizure of the domain names, FBI agents
downloaded thousands of "popular copyrighted mobile device apps" from
the alternative online markets.

Apparently
these applications were stored on web servers outside the U.S., which required
the cooperation of Dutch and French law enforcement agencies.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

The
official Anti-Piracy Warning (APW) Seal, seen above, has been approved by the U.S.
Attorney General as an official insignia of the FBI and the U.S. Department of
Justice.

Previously,
use of the Anti-Piracy Warning Seal previously was limited to entertainment and
software industry associations that had entered into written agreements with
the FBI. It became an ubiquitous symbol at the beginning of movies on VHS and DVD's.

However,
as of this Monday, any copyright holder from any sector, regardless of membership in
a formal association, can obtain the
seal by checking off a box to confirm consent with a list of
prohibitions and conditions. The terms of use cite, among other things, that
holders cannot animate or alter the emblem, or use it on child pornography.

The seal
is part of a public awareness campaign to remind consumers they are subject to
fines or jail time for intellectual property infringement. Copyrighted works
include films, audio recordings, electronic media, software, books and
photographs.

The
symbol does not provide greater legal protections for owners or signal
additional penalties for violators.

Rather, the official insignia “simply serves as a widely recognizable reminder of the FBI’s
authority and mission with respect to the protection of intellectual property
rights,” bureau officials said in a statement.

Lawful
use requires the below authorized text to be placed immediately adjacent
to Seal on the copyrighted work:

The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of a copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by fines and federal imprisonment.

Monday, August 6, 2012

In our blog post on July 7, we declared that the "war to regulate the Internet had only just begun," despite Internet Independence Day celebrations.On July 20, Kim Dot Com, the founder of MegaUpload who is under house arrest for illegal file sharing in New Zealand, repeated exactly that in a YouTube video.

His defense lawyers have recently filed motions in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, seeking to have the indictments dismissed on the theory that the Defendants could not have been served without a domestic agent representative. Justice Department officials scoffed at the defense's motion, and District Court Judge Liam O'Grady has taken the motion under advisement.

After search warrants issued in New Zealand were dismissed, commentators have begun to question whether the Justice Department's case against Dot Com and MegaUpload will stick.

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